Post harvest cool down

And the leaves that are green, turn to brown 

Today the final wine from the 2010 harvest was pressed in the Vatican.  It was the Fitou which marked the end of the harvest madness and a return to calm.  After 4 weeks of gentle fermentation and maceration it was time to get the first ever Jones Fitou juice off the skins and into barrel.  Getting the wine off was the easy bit, the harder bit was getting the skins out of the vat and into the press.  But good old Jones managed it single handed like a real vigneronne and now has the comfort of knowing that all the wines are through fermentation and gently ageing in vat and barrel.  I have 14 different barrels and vats from my 3 hectares of vines - the smallest one is just 80 litres and the largest 1000 litres.

Out in the vineyards the leaves are falling to the ground and the vines are waiting to be pruned.  They can wait a bit longer though as I have my first official outing from the village for months to Birmingham Bin Ends wine club.  Can't wait!

Jones vineyard in Tuchan

on the slippery slope

Autumn is on its way and so is Jones Fitou

Picking ended at Domaine Jones on the 8th of October.  The last grapes we picked were in the Jones Fitou vineyard in Tuchan and there was a distinct autumnal feel with the leaves turning to dark crimson and the early morning mist hiding the Mont Tauch mountain. 

This will be an exciting year for Domaine Jones as the first ever Jones Fitou will be made.  It could not have been done though without my amazing Mum and Dad who courageously came to help towards the end of the harvest to bring in the first ever Jones FITOU.  

70 year old Carignan getting the snip

Pickers in dawn mist 

Getting the job done in style

End of the 2010 harvest

A tired Jones

You will be glad to hear that the Jones 2010 harvest is looking much better than I am (except perhaps for my new pink flowery wellies).  Exhausted after 6 weeks of harvest activity starting with the whites in Maury and finishing today with the Carignan and Grenache in my new Fitou vineyard in Tuchan.  So what has Katie been up to?  Picking, pressing, fermenting the whites and picking, destalking and pumping over the reds I feel like I have done a 6 week work out at the gym.  But then your grapes start to ferment and the Vatican is alive with pop popping sounds and exquisite perfumes of fermenting juice and it is all worth while.

Waiting for the reds to ripen

There has been a welcome lull in the 2010 harvest as I have, dare I admit to it, put my feet up and waited for the Grenache noir in Maury to ripen.  This is not as relaxing as it may seem - are the wild boars going to eat my grapes, is it going to rain and dilute the quality, are the grapes going to shrivel like raisins?  Sleepless nights and stress that many locals give in to and play the safety card preferring to pick earlier than taking the risks of a later harvest. Mais pas moi!

My grapes are not quite ripe yet.  The skins are thick this year and the grapes quite small so I need to wait for the skins to turn sweet - the best way to check the maturity is to munch on the skins.

Katie munching grapes

 In the Vatican the white is bubbling gently and the sweet Muscat has already finished its fermentation.

Grenache Gris, where are you?

Where have all the Grenache Gris gone?  Now that we have picked all of the Grenache Gris in Maury the harvest is considerably down on last year.  The bunches were just so tiny and sometimes only had 2 or 3 berries on them.  Other times it felt like the vineyard had already been harvested (and not just by the wild boar).  Grenache is an unpredictable grape at the best of times but this year my grapes are showing that they have a mind of their own by producing less when other producers are announcing higher yields than last year.  The cause, according to locals, is that for various reasons (wind, sun) the flowers weren't pollinated and grapes therefore didn't develop.  The Grenache 'ran' or coule as the french say.  They certainly have!

Jane looking for Grenache Gris

Aaaha, found some!

Ready, steady, harvest

and we're off!  The 2010 harvest is underway and I am already exhausted.  The alarm clock rang at 5 o clock on Saturday morning (after a sleepless night due to harvest stress and howling gale) and the sun was just rising as we arrived at Domaine Jones in Maury to pick the Muscat.

We picked, sorted, pressed, tasted and chilled down the juice to settle in the tiny vat in the vatican.  All in all just over 300 litres of deliciously sweet muscat juice. We had a ham and cheese sandwich and then crawled into bed at just before midnight.

Muscat and a pair of legs

Freshly picked Muscat 

Countdown to the 2010 harvest

Squashed Muscat in a bag to extract juice

Ripening Muscat

Back from a refreshing holiday in south Wales, I popped up to Maury last night to see how my grapes were coming along.  It is still to early to say when we will be picking but I will be starting with the Muscat which will be ripe before the Grenache Gris and the reds.  So armed with my special sugar checking equipment (refractometer, plastic bag) I took the dog and we collected a bag full of muscat grapes, squashed them to a pulp and measured the sugar content in the juice with the refractometer.  We tasted the grapes too and checked to see if the pips and skins were ripe.

The dog didn't help much, except for yelping to confirm that the electric fence is still working, but another week and we should be starting the harvest.

The Queribus castle protecting Domaine Jones